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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2012 Jul 18;23(9):459–466. doi: 10.1016/j.tem.2012.06.006

Figure 1. Nuclear-encoded factors acting within mitochondria.

Figure 1

Targeted gene disruptions in mice (knockouts) have helped define the functions of several nuclear genes encoding products that function within mitochondria (as described in the text) including: Tfam (orange spheres), binds the mtDNA at multiple sites and functions in both mtDNA maintenance and transcription initiation; Mterf3, functions as a negative regulator of mtDNA transcription; Tfb1m (red ellipse) and Mterf4 (green ellipse), participate in mitochondrial ribosome assembly. Tfb1m is a dimethyltransferase that catalyzes the adenine dimethylation of the small ribosomal RNA required for ribosome assembly and translation. Similarly, a complex containing Mterf4 and the rRNA methyltransferase, NSUN4 (blue ellipse), participates in the assembly of the large ribosomal subunit.